Towne Center tenant announced

Groundbreaking is expected later this spring for MidAmerican Bank & Trust, the first tenant in Lansing's Towne Center development.

A sign at the corner of Main Street and 4-H Road marks the site where the bank will open a new, full-service Lansing branch.

"I hope you noted what the sign says at the bottom," Lansing Mayor Kenneth Bernard said, "'Growing with Lansing.'"

"We've owned that land for four or five years," said Marvin "Pete" Payne, president of MidAmerican. "We knew Lansing was going to be in our plans."

MidAmerican, he said, is proud to be the first tenant to be announced for Towne Center, which city officials envision as one day being Lansing's Central Business District.

"We're excited about it," Payne said. "There's no doubt about it, that area is going to develop. : We're pretty excited about being getting going and doing business with our new neighbors."

Payne said bank officials still were deciding between two floor plans for the bank: a two-story version with office space on the second floor or a one-story version with adjoining retail space for lease.

Once the design decision has been made, the plan is for construction to begin in late spring or early summer, with the bank's opening perhaps by January 2006.

MidAmerican already operates a small branch in the Wood Oil complex across 4-H Road from the Towne Center site. Payne said that with the new, larger bank, MidAmerican hoped to capture more of the growing Lansing market.

The new branch will offer a range of banking and financial services, Payne said.

"We'll have at least four drive-up lanes, all of the traditional banking products, investment products, loans," he said.

The expanded operation will also mean more employees for MidAmerican in Lansing. The current office has a staff of three; the new site will have a staff of about nine workers, Payne said.

Now that the first business has confirmed its intent to open in Towne Center, Bernard said he was looking forward to a domino effect of other announcements for the center.

"I hope so. I'll do everything within my power to make that happen," Bernard said.

In addition to Lansing, MidAmerican operates four banks in Leavenworth and it is building a bank at 110th Street and Parallel Parkway in Kansas City, Kan. MidAmerican has operated continuously since 1883.